• This week is a heart check
  • Brings forefront and reminds us what sin is
  • Gives examples of what walking by the Spirit can conquer

Example: When you leave base and see the victorious battles the Marine Corps has won

Preamble 1: Acts of the Flesh are Obvious (Vs. 19)

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious:

• Paul almost gives a sense of, “Acts of the flesh are obvious, do I really need to tell you what they are?” Yet felt called to write them anyways.
• If they are NOT obvious to you, then you are:
  • New in your faith
  • Deceived yourself into thinking certain behavior is acceptable

Preamble 2: Describes what the Kingdom of God is NOT (Vs. 21)

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

• Notice Paul gives a warning, but its not the first time he has given this warning
• The Greek tense Paul uses is one of continuation i.e. those who “continue to live like this will not”
  • There will not be sexual immorality in heaven or when Jesus comes back
    • Does that excite you or disappoint you?
  • If you continue to pursue this behavior then you are NOT pursuing the kingdom of God

*Simply You will not inherit the kingdom because you don’t want it. You want what is contrary to it

Acts of the Flesh: Things you did not and would not see Jesus doing

• Note: Paul, in line with Jesus, does not identify them by their sin but calls these “acts of sin” e.g. the act of adultery but not an adulterer. The acts of homosexuality but not a homosexual.

Sensual Sins

sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;

*Many view the sexual sin of today as atrocious, but it was probably not nearly as bad as Paul’s day

• Sexual Immorality = porneia
  • To Jews, you could not separate porneia from marriage, thus all porneia was adultery; however, the Roman-Greek mindset was different in which it speaks to sexual misconduct in a broad sense
  • Originally meant, “use of a prostitute” but by Paul’s day had come to mean a slew of sexual “deviances.”
    • Pre-marital sex
    • Adultery
    • Acts of homosexuality
    • Acts of bestiality (Cult of Dianytrus and the Satyrs)
    • Acts of pedo-philia

*Gentiles viewed many of these acts as “deviances,” but not necessarily wrong. It was different, but not sin per se. In this statement, Paul is making a wide cultural stand about what sin is.

• Impurity = akarthar-sia (opposite of purity or uncleanliness; sexually impure acts that do not involve actual intercourse)
  • Pornography
  • Vulgar or suggestive language such as cussing but more so, sexually oriented
  • Acts of sexual foreplay
  • Masturbation

*Many BELEIVERS will maintain their chastity until marriage but still compromise their purity

• Debauchery/Lewdness = aselgia “ready to sin at any time, over-the-top, outrageous acts without restraint, entirely indulgent”
  • Flaunt your immorality or impure behavior; almost as if your proud of it
  • Acts as an identity or forms a personality of someone

*E.g. Marine Corps anyone?

Religious Sins

1. idolatry and witchcraft;

• Idolatry = idol-olat-ria (the worship of things or images)
  • Is anything that removes and replaces God’s rightful place in your life, design, purpose, identity, etc.
  • Improper, misplaced worship
  • God is a jealous God. He cares where you place your time, energy, passion, resources, etc.
• Witchcraft/Sorcery = pharmakia
  • We hear sorcery and think of “Hocus Pocus,” but the reality, especially as tied to the cult practices of Rome is the spiritual and medicinal “potions”
    • These potions were essentially drugs. Drugs that would give you a “high” of spiritual experience of the gods, cast or ward off evil spirits, or heal chronic illness

Relational Sins

hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 

*Notice, of all the listed sins, the relational sins are the most listed. This shows how much God cares about how we treat each other

• Hatred/enmity = exthra (hostile/aggressive to the point of alienation or removal of fellowship)
  • Hatred is the opposite of love
  • Modern culture is trying to make hatred illegal, but you can’t arrest someone’s heart

*Notice, Torah said do not commit acts of hatred “Do not murder,” Jesus says, “Do not hate.” Another example, do not commit acts of the lust (adultery), Jesus says, “Do not lust.” How? You need the Spirit!

• Discord= eris (being contentious, quarrelsome, always in the middle of fights)
  • Literally means “in love with fighting/arguing”)
• Jealousy/Zeal = zelos (Literally means to “to boil over”; figuratively used “an inner-emotion boiling over”)
  • Literally same word for Zeal, but context determines if its negative or positive
  • Wrong desire or emotion for what is not for us

*May be more appropriately applied to those who hold grudges, can’t let things go, or let emotion boil over into improper behavior

• Fits of Rage = thumos (outbursts of wrath or passion)
  • Literally, losing your temper
  • Idea of not being in control of your emotions
• Selfish Ambition = er-ith-ia (literally self-seeking mercenary)
  • Idea is someone who pursues themselves no matter the cost or what division or strife it causes
  • To work without higher cause except for one’s self

*Church examples I see: people serve the homeless so they can get the letter of appreciation; community service sign-off for college acceptance but not for the actual people they are serving

• Dissension = dee-kos-tas-see-ya (divisions that wrongly separate and place people into pointless groups/factions
  • Racism is dissension
  • Identity politics is dissension
  • Classism is dissention

*It speaks of communities who work more to divide themselves then unite

• Factions = her-esis (literally means heresy, or to make a decisive choice)
  • We think heresy means the wrongful ideas or teachings, but it really means hardened positions over disagreements of others choices that you divide yourself from them
  • Divisively making a choice or the wrongful dividing over opinions

Social Sins

1. and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. 

• Envy = pith-onos (bitterness that others have what we don’t)
  • Ancient stoics called it “grief over someone else’s good”
  • It’s the state of being glad when someone else suffers mis-fortune

*Example: Gamestop run in the stock market

• Drunkenness = methe
  • Means what it means. Drinking to impairment
  • Paul calls drunkedness in Ephesians 5:18 as “wastefulness”
    • Alcohol was a health benefit in these days, more so than water due to cleanliness
    • Getting drunk is wasting wine, wasting money, wasting time, wasting your mind
• Orgies = komos (uncontrolled partying)
  • Not really about sexual orgies like people think now, but uncontrolled, unfettered partying

Fruits of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love,  joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

• Really, the rest of the fruits that follow are descriptors of what love looks like
• Love = Agape
  • Usually referred as “divine” love or “unconditional” love
  • Most literal meaning is a “love by choice”
    • It’s a love that engages the heart and the mind
• Joy = chara
  • Joy of awareness
  • Joy in its source
  • Etymology link is a combo of char and charo meaning “joy because of grace”

*Sustained joy requires a sustained awareness of grace, and a sustained awareness of the source of that grace

• Peace = Irene (Completeness, fulfilled)
  • When all essential parts are joined together
  • To no longer long, but rest in satisfaction
• Forbearance/patience = mak-roth-oo-mee-ah
  • Patience as applied to justice, vengeance, retribution, anger, etc.
• Kindness = kray-stot-ace (Serviceable kindness)
  • Means properly useable. Kindness is not a state of existence but is PROPERLY used for service
• Goodness = Agath-o-soon-ay (condition of being made good)
  • Strictly bible term. Roots found elsewhere, but this variation only found in biblical Greek
• Faithfulness = pristis
  • Same word used for Faith all throughout Galatians
• Gentleness/meekness = prah-oo-tace (strength under control)
  • Literally means “knowing how to use a sword but keeping it sheathed”
  • Its impossible to be meek or gentle if you are weak, only applies to strong people
• Self-control = eng-krat-ia (mastery)
  • Proceeding out from within oneself but not of oneself

Social Warnings

26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

• Conceited = ken-ed-oxos (empty glory)
  • Like selling an empty jar of nothing for a lot of money
  • “Delusions of grandeur”

*As you enter into small groups, remember this

• Provoking = prokaleo (to challenge or call-out)
  • The idea is not don’t hold each other accountable, but call out or challenge people to uplift your own empty image (like spiritual ad hominem)
• Envy= Again, glad at others mis-fortune, or bitter at others fortune

Characteristics of Fruit

• Note: Acts is an act, but fruit is something much different
• Characteristics:
  • Producing fruit requires work, but also patience
  • Fruit goes through seasons
  • It sometimes requires pruning, removal, and grafting
  • Fruit is fragile
  • Fruit re-produces itself
  • Fruit is desired and attractive
  • Fruit nourishes

Guided Discussion Questions

1. Paul makes a list of sins and spiritual fruits he wants young believers to know. He gives them a warning and encouragement for their new life in Christ. If you had to give a new believer one warning about the Christian walk, what would be your warning? What would be your best piece of advice?

2. Think back to last week, how did we do in our commitments to feed the Spirit, starve the flesh, and say “no” to ourselves?

3. Looking at Paul’s list of obvious acts of the flesh, were any NOT obvious to you? If not, why?

4. Effectively, Paul gives a list of what the kingdom of Heaven is NOT. To pursue or desire those acts of the flesh means to not pursue or desire heaven. The question then, is do you really want heaven? Does the thought of those fleshy acts not existing when Jesus comes back excite you or disappoint you?

5. Of all the listed fleshly acts listed, which one challenged or convicted you the most? Which ones have you seen victories over?

6. Of all the listed fruits of the Spirit, which fruit do you produce the most of? Which fruit are you lacking in?

Weekly Challenge: Identify another in your group and share with each other which fleshly acts you currently struggle with. Then, pray with each other over that battle and continue to pray for each other throughout the week.  Lastly, identify a fruit of the Spirit you want to improve in. Pray for that as well.